The call of the wild

is,” said one of them; “and its not me should tell you your business, but I wouldn’t tote that tent along if I was you.”
    “Undreamed of!” cried Mercedes, throwing up her hands in dainty dismay. “However in the world could I manage without a tent?”
    “It’s springtime, and you won’t get any more cold weather,” the man replied.
    She shook her head decidedly, and Charles and Hal put the last odds and ends on top the mountainous load.
    “Think it’ll ride?” one of the men asked.
    “Why shouldn’t it?” Charles demanded rather shortly.
    “Oh, that’s all right, that’s all right,” the man hastened meekly to say. “I was just a wondering, that is all. It seemed a mite top-heavy.”
    Charles turned his back and drew the lashings down as well as he could, which was not in the least well.
    “And of course the dogs can hike along all day with that contraption behind them,” affirmed a second of the men.
    “Certainly,” said Hal, with freezing politeness, taking hold of the gee-pole with one hand and swinging his whip from the other. “Mush!” He shouted. “Mush on there!”
    The dogs sprang against the breastbands, strained hard for a few moments, then relaxed. They were unable to move the sled.
    “The lazy brutes, I’ll show them,” he cried, preparing to lash out at them with the whip.
    But Mercedes interfered, crying, “Oh, Hal, you mustn’t,” as she caught hold of the whip and wrenched it from him. “The poor dears! Now you must promise you won’t be harsh with them for the rest of the trip, or I won’t go a step.”
    “Precious lot you know about dogs,” her brother sneered, “and I wish you’d leave me alone. They’re lazy, I tell you, and you’ve got to whip them to get anything out of them. That’s their way. You ask anyone. Ask one of those men.”
    Mercedes looked at them imploringly, untold repugnances at sight of pain written in her pretty face.
    “They’re weak as water, if you want to know,” came the reply from one of the men. “Plum tuckered out, that’s what’s the matter. They need a rest.”
    “Rest be blanked,” said Hal, with his beardless lips; and Mercedes said, “Oh!” in pain and sorrow at the oath.
    But she was a clannish creature, and rushed at once to the defense of her brother. “Never mind that man,” she said pointedly. “You’re driving our dogs and you do what you think best with them.”
    Again Hal’s whip fell upon the dogs. They threw themselves against the breastbands, dug their feet into the packed snow, got down low to it, and put forth all their strength. The sled held as though it were an anchor. After two efforts, they stood still, panting. The whip was whistling savagely, when once more Mercedes interfered. She dropped on her knees before Buck, with tears in her eyes, and put her arms around his neck.
    “You poor, poor dears,” she cried sympathetically, “why don’t you pull hard? Then you wouldn’t be whipped.” Buck did not like her, but he was feeling too miserable to resist her, taking it as a part of the day’s miserable work.
    One of the onlookers, who had been clenching his teeth to suppress hot speech, now spoke up:
    “It’s not that I care a whoop what becomes of you, but for the dogs’ sakes I just want to tell you, you can help them a mighty lot by breaking out that sled. The runners are froze fast. Throw your weight against the gee-pole, right and left, and break it out.”
    A third time the attempt was made, but this time, following the advice, Hal broke out the runners which had been frozen to the snow. The overloaded and unwieldy sled forged ahead, Buck and his mates struggling frantically under the rain of blows. A hundred yards ahead the path turned and sloped steeply into the main street. It would have required an experienced man to keep the top-heavy sled upright, and Hal was not such a man. As they swung on the turn the sled went over, spilling half its load through the loose lashings. The dogs never stopped. The lightened sled bounded on its side behind them. They were angry because of the ill treatment they had received and the unjust load. Buck was raging. He broke into a run, the team following his lead. Hal cried, “Whoa! Whoa!” But they gave no heed. He tripped and was pulled off his feet. The capsized sled ground over him, and the dogs dashed on up the street, adding to the gaiety of Skaguay as they scattered the remainder of the outfit along its chief